The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here

Around the globe, the process of producing electricity takes many forms, including burning coal, oil, or wood, sourcing energy from the sun or hydroelectric dams, and nuclear power. Our consumption of energy has quadrupled since 1970; not only are there more humans inhabiting the Earth each year, but individual people are using more energy than their ancestors ever did. Americans consume 15% of the globe’s energy supply, a story of excess that mirrors the country’s extreme consumption of grain, meat, and fish.

Jahren points out that almost all of our tools and technologies consume energy, from boiling water and watching baseball games to depending on streetlights: “The net effect is that now not only the tools of our labor but the general objects of our landscape consume energy” (84). She encourages her reader not to stop using electricity altogether but to start using less of it. Just as she argues for reduced meat consumption, she challenges individuals to turn the lights off, drive less, and unplug the appliances.

This chapter shifts from electricity consumption to the energy that powers transportation like cars and planes. Cars consume less resources than planes, although cars travel at a slower pace. Despite the better efficiency of cars, “Today, Americans take almost two million more flights per year than they did in 2003—and the majority of these flights are for business” (91).